Power

     I am definitely not as much into hard labor as I used to be. I am pretty sure I lack the strength and muscle power I had when I was 10 years younger. We had a ceiling that the plaster was cracked in our project house. I did not want to try to man handle those sheets of dry wall up and get them screwed into place without a little mechanical help. 

     I checked with Eric and he had a dry wall jack for rent. We have used one before but either I am getting old or this one was a lot heavier to load and unload than the one we have used previously. 

     Once the sheets were on the jack it was pretty easy to lift them up to the ceiling. I am not going to say it was easy putting in the screws because I hate working over my head. But I was able to get the ceiling done today. I was putting up the last piece when I realized that the reason the ceiling was cracked was someone had sprayed the ceiling with texture and had not gotten a good adhesion. The ceiling itself was fine and I could have removed the cracked layer easily with a mud knife. Now I have to tape and mud the ceiling. Yea!!

     When I removed the ceiling fan to put up the sheet rock I found a real rat's nest of wiring in the box. 6 wires coming in and no wire nuts just black tape. There were also bare wires. This was a fire waiting to happen. I have Rich and his guys working on the electrical service to the house so I am going to turn them loose on this project as well. Dan told me he has seen this sort of wiring before they ran all the power to the room through the ceiling light box. I am glad he has an idea what is going on in this box, because I just looked at it and thought, that's a mess.

 

     Speaking of a mess I wonder exactly why someone thought they needed 2 fused outlets and 1 normal outlet by the washer dry hookups in this basement. How much power did they need? What were they plugging in that they needed a fuse right by the outlet?

There were 4 fuse boxes in our project house. I guess they just kept adding electrical outlets and electrical appliances that needed power so they would just add another fuse box. 

     Gotta love this old set up. Wires out in the open on a fused porcelain holder. I don't think I want to hear what a building inspector would say and I am sure my insurance company would cancel my policy if we turned the power on with this baby still in use. 

      New service is going in and the wires are going into conduit. It is a work in progress and while the work is in progress there is no electrical current.

The only power at the house was from this generator. 2000 watts but is has a 13 amp kick out. That means we can not run an air compressor or a compound miter saw or a table saw, but we can run lights in the basement and a reciprocating saw. Not very much power if you are trying to remodel a house.

     But as I said progress is being made. The breaker box is on the wall. As of noon today the mast is on the outside of the house. The wires run into the breaker box but nothing coming out yet. The ground wires are in place. Soon there will be power. There will be lights, and a furnace. We will be able to get the water meter installed and the water turned on. We will be able to bring our power tools over and get started in earnest. Windows and doors can be replaced. Dry wall taped and mudded and texture sprayed. Then painting and flooring and cabinets and bathroom vanity. Then tile can be put in the bathroom and the shower can be installed. 

     Everything is waiting for the power to be turned on. Right now everything that can be done has to be done either with battery tools or by hand. It is a slow way to get things done. We need electrical power. A lot of Christians go through life seeming to never tap into the power that is available to them. They keep trying live their lives the best they can thinking they are doing what God wants if they are good managers and rely on the talents God has given them. I think they are missing out on the power they could have.

     God gives us His Spirit to live in us and if we turn everything over to Him it is a tremendous jolt of power in our walk with God. I find it a great comfort to say to God, "Hey God you take care of this." We ask God to give us the tenants He wants not the ones we want. Sometimes we rent to people we would not if we didn't think God was taking care of it. I hear stories of owners who are owed a lot of back rent. Our tenants are all paid up. That doesn't mean there are never any problems but sometimes those problems allow us to tell the story of salvation to someone who doesn't know God. 

     I have come to the realization God has a lot of power and I have none. We like to think we do but we don't. Without the power of God we are like a house without electrical current. There is a feeling of deadness when there is no electrical power. A house seems to come alive when the current is turned on. That is how my life is also, unless the power of God is running through me nothing will run easily or well. Without tapping into the power of God we will always be partially dead.